348 NEW ALIGNMENTS [1890-1901
circumstances and with what forces each would give military
support to the other. It was expressly provided that this
DUAL ALLIANCE should last as long as the Triple Alliance.
The grouping of the great Powers into two hostile camps was
now complete and definite.
§ 171. THE " SICK MAN" OF THE FAR EAST.—Russia
was now impelled to accelerate her expansion across
northern Asia as the line of least resistance after the thwarting
of her Balkan ambitions (§ 161). Industrialism had by this
time begun to make headway in Russia, and the teeming
millions of China would provide an unlimited outlet for her
produce. For centuries China had maintained her ancient but
petrified civilisation, secluded from all contact with Western
culture ; but this exclusiveness had been partly broken down
after the Opium War (1839-1842), which compelled the
Emperor to open certain " Treaty Ports " to European goods.
In 1860 Russia acquired a stretch of coast to the north of
Korea, where they built a naval port (unfortunately ice-bound
in winter), which they called Vladivostock. This name,
which signifies " The Domination of the East," was significant
of their ambitions ; but equally significant was the fact that
it stands opposite to Japan. For Japan was also deter-
mined to dominate the East* Up to the eighteen-sixties her
culture had remained in the medieval stage depicted " on
many a vase and jar, on many a screen and fan," with a
Mikado who claimed to be descended from the Gods and a
picturesque feudal system. Then the ruling classes suddenly
set out to modernise and westernise their country. A par-
liamentary monarchy was set up, young men were sent to
Europe to study, and such amazing faculty for imitation did
the Japanese display that within twenty years the country
was replete with all the amenities of Western civilisation—
railways, telegraphs, universities, factories, and a conscript
army.
By 1890 all this had gone so far that Japan was faced with